Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • Collection
  • Collection Research
  • Past Exhibitions
  • Watch / Listen / Read

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum
Previous image 1 2 3 4 / 4 Next image

Anna Maria van Schurman

Self Portrait

Maker

Anna Maria van Schurman (Dutch, 1607-1678)

Title

Self Portrait

Year

1633

Medium

  • engraving,
  • trimmed along and within platemark

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • engraving,
  • trimmed along and within platemark

Materials

engraving

Supports

  • laid paper,
  • mat

Dimensions

Sheet: 16.6 x 15 cm (6 9/16 x 5 7/8 inches)

Identification

Edition

166/7?

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Jesse Metcalf Fund

Object Number

2002.30

Type

  • Prints

Publications

  • Books

The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650

Renaissance engravings are objects of exquisite beauty and incomparable intricacy that are composed entirely of lines. Artists began using this intaglio process in Europe as early as 1430. This captivating catalogue focuses on the height of the medium, from 1480 to 1650, when engravers made dramatic and rapid visual changes to engraving technique as they responded to the demands of reproducing artworks in other media. The Brilliant Line follows these visual transformations and offers new insight into the special inventiveness and technical virtuosity of Renaissance and Baroque (Early Modern) engravers. The three essays discuss how engraving’s restrictive materials and the physical process of engraving informed its visual language; the context for the spread of particular engraving styles throughout Europe; and the interests, knowledge, and skills that Renaissance viewers applied when viewing and comparing engravings by style or school.

Exhibition History

The Brilliant Line
Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650
Sep 18, 2009 – Jan 03, 2010

Label copy

Anna Maria van Schurman was a poet and scholar as well as a visual artist, for whom engraving was one of many artistic pursuits including painting and engraving calligraphy on glass with a diamond. She learned to engrave from the professional engraver Magdalena van de Passe in Utrecht.

Van Schurman was remarkably erudite (she was the first female student at the University of Utrecht) and was celebrated by male intellectuals in her time for her knowledge of several languages. She published an essay on the education of women: her conclusion was that women should be educated in all matters if it did not interfere with their domestic duties, a radical position at the time. She saw engraving and other arts as a means by which a virtuous woman could occupy idle time. Here, she presents herself as a learned lady (composing a legend in Latin) who is also modest. The legend reads: “No pride or beauty prompted me to engrave my features in the unforgiving copper; but [it was] because my un-practiced graver was not yet capable of producing good work, [and] I would not have risked a weightier task the first time.”

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Anna Maria van Schurman (Dutch, 1607-1678)
Self Portrait, 1633
Engraving, trimmed along and within platemark
Sheet: 16.6 x 15 cm (6 9/16 x 5 7/8 inches)
Jesse Metcalf Fund 2002.30

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Main Navigation

  • Visit

    • Hours & Admission
    • Accessibility & Amenities
    • Tours & Group Visits
    • Visitor Guidelines
  • Art & Design

    • Collection Research
    • Collection
    • Past Exhibitions
  • Join / Give

    • Become a Member
    • Give
  • Exhibitions & Events

    • Exhibitions
    • Events
  • Watch / Listen / Read

    • The Latest
    • Publications
    • Articles
    • Audio & Video

Footer Secondary Navigation

  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use
Tickets
Homepage
Go to the risd.edu homepage. This link will open in a new window.